Congrats on winning a spot in this compilation! As a fan of Western films from Tombstone to the Man With No Name Trilogy, I was stoked to get a Western submission for the anthology. Did you do any research into noir? What was your inspiration for Reaper and the town of Tegna?

Thank you! It's been wonderful working on this short. And I got introduced to so many amazing entries on here, glad to be a part of it!

I researched into old movies that gave a boost to the Noir genre. Light and shadow played a vital part of portraying the stories on screen to lend that gritty feel. I tried to ingrain that in Reaper hopefully adding to a more cinematic feel. And needless to say, the recent works I saw had an impact on the character of Reaper. William Munny's character(played by Clint Eastwood) from Unforgiven was a huge influence.

Being a Quentin Tarantino fan, so had to pay homage. In the first chapter, Brown's Haberdashery, reference to The Hateful Eight and Reservoir Dogs.

The town of Tegna was built after the character of Reaper. Extreme characters are a result of extreme environments, so created a set of situations that could in turn give rise to such a person. I think it draws some influence from Sin City.

Do you remember the first time you encountered the noir style? How did it affect you as a writer?

I can't pinpoint one work that pushed it up for me, I feel like the genre has always been around! Have always loved the dark and brooding characters who haven't had their stuff figured out in life! Hahaha.

But some works have left a huge impact on me. The Neo Noir movie Fargo by Coen brothers, and the recent TV series of the same name, inspired from the movie. The flow in all of them is unbelievable, just goes on to show how much power dialogues have! One of the earliest I remember having seen is Sin City and the way Bruce Willis gives hope to a girl before dying, in a world were none could be found just hit me. Then there's Memento, The Prestige (yes am a huge Nolan fan lol) Blade Runner, Raging Bull, The Usual Suspects,No Country for Old Men.

One of the major influences in my writing has come from Japanese Seinen manga works like Oldboy and Homunculus. There are a lot of masterpieces to be explored here and it's really interesting how they have evolved over the years. Some of them are just so psychological and moving.

These are the sort of works that change you. You don't know where or what, all you know is something inside has been irreversibly changed for better or worse!

Yes, I love that you have experienced the breadth of what noir has to offer across the different genres and media. Which elements of noir did you find the most satisfying to weave into your stories? (i.e. dialogue, characters, narrative, etc.)

I find atmosphere and characters the most fun to write.

'Reaper' is in a way, a character sketch. While on the surface Reaper doesn't seem to change much throughout the story, it was really fun to portray how his psychology was gradually changing through the character of the old man. How he had started questioning all he had done over the years and where his path was going eventually!

And as I mentioned before the atmosphere was inspired by the cinematography of the old Noir films, with their low key lighting, black and white setup.

This story plays like a movie in my mind.

Do you see yourself coming back to the noir/hard-boiled style in future works? And speaking of future works, what projects have you got on deck for your readers?

Definitely! I am planning to write a Noir novella called Beyond the Rains. This one has a more grimmer tone than Reaper. It's set in an alternate reality, around the time when World War two is about to break out. A man living on the border of two nations, gets dragged into a political ploy. Much is undecided, but I am looking forward to writing this, especially after this boost this anthology has provided me! :)

Currently I am working on a fantasy project, The White Capes.

Sounds great! I'm a sucker for historical fiction/alternate histories. Thanks for joining our noir crew in this anthology!

Visit trueathenian 's home page to see more of their work, including The White Capes.